about father matt

Hi! I’m Fr. Matt Siegman, a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Wichita and pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in the Delano neighborhood of Wichita, Kansas.

I’m a Wichita kid through and through. I attended All Saints Catholic School and Kapaun Mt. Carmel Catholic High School, then went to Wichita State University, where I earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 2008.

Engineer first

At WSU I focused on power systems: nuclear power, transmission lines, and distribution grids were fascinating to me. Jobs in those fields were hard to come by in Wichita, though, so I began working as a co-op student in the Flight Test Center at Bombardier as a software engineer. After graduation they gave me a full-time position, and I worked on internal projects in C, C++, C#, Perl, PHP, JavaScript, and seemingly everything else. I enjoyed that job immensely and was lucky to work with a number of amazing people.

Matt in Fourth Degree Regalia — (Before he was Fr.) Matt in Knights of Columbus Fourth Degree regalia.

I was busy outside of work, too. I cantored and lectored at Sunday Mass at my home parish, All Saints, and joined the Fourth Degree of the Knights of Columbus. I have the honor of being Past Grand Knight of All Saints Council #9767.

Then everything changed

In 2013, I entered priestly formation as a seminarian for the Diocese of Wichita.

I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis in 2015. Going into philosophy as an engineer, I did not expect to learn anything. I was surprised to learn more than I could have imagined, especially from the greats: Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas.

From there I went to Mundelein Seminary (University of Saint Mary of the Lake) in Chicago for theology. Scripture classes were a particular joy: I had Dr. Scott Hahn for the Synoptic Gospels and Acts, and loved my courses on the Pentateuch and Deuteronomic histories and on the Prophets. I was also blessed to make a nine-week pilgrimage to the Holy Land, taking classes, visiting every holy site imaginable, and getting to know the people who live there now. It was an unforgettable experience.

Preaching on Pentecost Sunday. — Then-Deacon Matt does deacon things, by preaching on Pentecost Sunday.

On May 19, 2018, Bishop Carl Kemme ordained me a deacon at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Wichita. I preached my first official homily (homiletics class doesn’t count!) that night at All Saints, on how we can respond to the Holy Spirit. In my last year of school I learned to celebrate the sacraments, especially Confession and the Mass, and studied both forms of the Roman Rite. I also took an elective on the Liturgical Movement, which culminated at Vatican II in Sacrosanctum Concilium. That January, I led 33 other men from Mundelein to the March for Life, a humbling witness to how many people stand up for our unborn brothers and sisters.

Priesthood

Bishop Kemme ordained me a priest on May 25, 2019, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. I celebrated my first Mass the next day at All Saints, and a week later, on June 2, my first Mass in the Extraordinary Form: a Solemn High Mass, no less!

My first assignment was as parochial vicar at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Wichita, and in June 2022 I became its administrator. A year later, Bishop Kemme asked me to become pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church, starting in late June 2023. He installed me as pastor on July 30, 2023, and it was such a joy to celebrate that moment with many of my new parishioners and with my bishop.

God has been so good to me! I am sure there are challenges ahead, but I look forward with great hope and faith to the amazing things God will be pleased to do.